Bhubaneswar: East Coast Railway (ECoR) officials have put up sign boards on the road opposite the entry and exit of platform no-VI of Bhubaneswar station, requesting visitors and passengers coming by vehicles to use alternative roads at Laxmisagar and the Kalpana side of Puri-Cuttack road.
The move follows a report published in Orissa POST in its October 16 edition highlighting the inconvenience being caused by the barricading done in a thoughtless manner on the Cuttack side entrance via platform no VI.
According to conservative estimates, around 30 percent of passengers enter the railway station through platform VI and 40 percent exit the station taking this way every day.
The railways recently blocked this road to arrest the mushrooming of street vendors around platform VI entrance. But, this was done without giving any prior alert to passengers coming from Puri-Cuttack Road. As a result, many people who came by vehicles to reach the station struggled to get out because the parked vehicles there had already blocked the whole stretch.
Reacting to the Orissa POST, top officials of ECoR have now directed officials concerned to put up the necessary sign boards in a bid to alert passengers and visitors as also to ease congestion.
Currently, the railways have put up three sign boards. One is at the beginning while the second is at the other end of the road opposite platform no-VI. A third one has been set up on the alternative road near Kalpana Square.
However, the sign board at the beginning of the blocked road has been placed at the pick and drop location of city buses. This has blocked the visitors’ view of the sign board because of the buses parked there, leading to many people coming by vehicles still taking this road to pick up or drop passengers.
Result: this road is still facing traffic snarls as people could only realize that the road is blocked only when they reach its end. Hence, most of them park their vehicles in the middle of this blocked road, thus inconveniencing the entry and exit of even those coming by foot.
“What is the need for putting up a sign board at the end of a blocked road? The display should have been made at the entry of Puri-Cuttack road,” said AK Pradhan, a merchant doing business at the Cuttack side entrance of the station.
Similarly, a railway official conceded that efforts are required for ensuring the smooth entry and exit of physically challenged people and also emergency vehicles. Earlier, it was easy to handle medical emergencies since ambulances were able to reach pretty close to the entrance of platform No VI due to the absence of barricades.
But, the current barricading is creating hurdles to the movement of wheelchairs and stretchers. Therefore, a sloping entry point or ramp has to be created at platform VI side for helping the physically challenged and also for entry of stretchers in case of medical emergencies.
Jose K Joseph, OP
